Search - Ike Turner :: 1951-1954

Ike & Bonnie Turner?

Sasha | at sea...sailing somewhere | 07/03/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Criminally under-appreciated as musician (his importance in history of rock'n'roll can't be denied) while mass media forever focuses on sordid details of his private life,Ike Turner early work is one of cornerstones of rock.Ike was Hendrix before Hendrix and his piano playing was pure,uninhibited rollicking roadhouse joy.Unfortunately,there is nothing really exceptional here - because he mostly insisted on recording his own material,music is well played but melodies are derivative,something that would not change through the years.Later on,he would disguise old songs re-recorded under different names,here he clearly got inspirations from other sources ("My heart belongs to you" is actually "Trouble in mind",while "Everybody's talking" is "Hucklebuck").Althought excellent musician,Ike was never exciting singer and that is why on this early recordings he sound like second-rate B.B.King and also the reason why he always depended on strong performers while he cleverly stayed in the background.That leads us to his first wife,today completely forgotten and very mysterious figure Bonnie Turner - knowing what comes later,she is complete surprise because she had the sweetest,cutest and completely likeable voice,her duetts with Ike are like listening big bad wolf romancing some big-eyed Disney kitten.In fact,she sound a bit like Nellie Lutcher! Because she played piano,Ike switched to guitar and some of the instrumentals here are really good but calling a 1954. song "Hey Miss Tina" is simply a cheat,it was recorded originaly under name "Cubano Jump" and the lady in question would come on the scene few years later.This compilation might not be essential but it can be surprisingly fun listening,specially for guitar players."